oa. 2, 1879] 



NATURE 



547 



accuracy, his power and fulness, elevating all he touched, re- 

 turning to the astonished inventor his discovery developed and 

 fertilised, sowing broadcast his ideas, and rejoicing when others, 

 friends or foes, were enriched by the precious fruits of his 

 genius. As a scientific historian he excelled Condercet, equalled 

 Cuvier and Fontenelle, and was characterised above all others 

 by his eagerness to give every one his due, and his jealous love of 

 justice. As an orator he carried into the tribune the vigour and 

 clearness of the scientific chair, vivified by the emotions of 

 masterspirits, and dominating the assembly by his lofty stature, 

 with his beautiful Southern head, and his eye full of fire. He 

 was a man, in fact, in whom the will to act was united with the 

 consciousness of power, an intelligence marvellously comprehensive 

 and powerfully creative, so bold and yet so prudent at times that it 

 never commited an error that required to be retracted. Of an 

 ardent but loyal nature, ready for power, but incapable of 

 hatred, and thirsting for justice, a heart sensitive and valiant, 

 sometimes drawn, says a contemporary, to show itself severe to 

 the strong in order to support the weak ; a soul austere but a 

 brow serene ; a father and citizen worthy of the ancient legends, 

 and able, like Camot on quitting life to bear the noble witness : 

 — 'My hands are clean and my heart pure.' From the extent 

 f the sketch you may judge what will be the nature of the 

 i icture." 



PALEOZOIC ROCKS IN SOUTH-EAST OF 

 ENGLAND ' 

 T N a communication to the Geological Section of the meeting 

 -•■ of the British Association at Plymouth in 1878, I called 

 attention to the significance of the result of the deep boring at 

 Messrs. Meux's ; as to the upper Devonian beds there met with 

 next beneath the cretaceous strata ; also as to the importance of 

 some further knowledge as to the direction of the dip of the said 

 upper Devonian beds. An accurate acquaintance with this point 

 is essentially needed with reference to its immediate bearing on 

 a question which may possibly become one of national import- 

 ance, namely, the place of tlie true coal measure series beneath 

 our south-eastern area, and which must serve as an excuse for 

 another short communication on the same subject. 



The question involved has attracted tlie attention of sundry 

 foreign geologists during the past year, and upon our own area 

 facts have been ascertained which now enable us to arrive in- 

 ferentially at what, but a year since, was mere speculation. 



M. Dewalque, at a recent meeting of the Belgian Geological 

 Society, remarked first on the absence of Jurassic and Triassic 

 deposits, as along the palaeozoic ridge extending from the Ar- 

 dennes by the north of France, being just what the borings at 

 St.Trond,Laecken, Menin, and Ostende would indicate. Secondly, 

 that inasmuch as the paleozoic formations of Belgium and the 

 north-west of France are extended into England, it is an im- 

 portant point, with reference to the prolongation of the Belgian 

 coal-basin, that London should be known to be situated imme- 

 diately over a formation, which is itself so close to the coal 

 measures. "The supposition that the dip of these upper 

 Devonian beds is to the south, and that they belong to the ex- 

 tension of our northern basin is that which is the most probable. 

 The coal formation may therefore occur at a short distance south 

 rf London, and at a workable depth. 



With a southern dip it may be that these beds (upper Devo- 

 nian) l)Clong to the extension of our southern basin. In this 

 case coal may occur in the north as well as in the south, and 

 nearer on this side (north) than on the south. Should there be such 

 a coal basin, it might be as useless as ours (Belgium) of the Con- 

 ilros and the Entre Sambre and Meuse." The exact significance of 

 tins latter alternative of the Belgian geologist may not, perhaps, 

 l.c understood by English geologists generally, as it has reference 

 10 a feature in the physical structure of Belgium, but the which 

 IS very properly referred to by M. Dewalque, now that the 

 j.alxozoic band of the Continent is known to reach our south- 

 east district. The band of Belgian and North of France coal- 

 measures may be truly represented as trough-shaped, however 

 produced. 



M. Dewalque adds : " Starting from the supposition that our 

 (Belgian) old strata are prolonged westward into England, and 

 from the fact that upper Devonian strata occur under London, 

 we are led to admit that the band of Silurian slates of the 



' '' ^"'■''"J ^''"''"'f.''.'' '•'« Range of the PaLeozoic Rocks Ixneath the 

 South.ta.st of England," by R. A. C Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. Paper read 

 :<• the Sheffield meeting of the British Association. 



Ostende boring must pass north of London. These slates must 

 be separated from the upper Devonian by other beds, such as 

 the black slates of the Menin Shaft, which are Silurian. Con- 

 sidering the geographical position of these three places, together 

 with the east and west direction of our older formations, it 

 would not seem that their prolongation into England would 

 carry them sufficiently north of London, so that the Devonian 

 beds there should represent our Condros basin, and not that of 

 Namur. If, then, at that place (London) we are in a prolonga- 

 tion of the Namur basin, the strata at Meux's must dip south ; 

 consequently it is most probable that the coal-measures are to 

 be found at a short distance south." 



Such were the inferences drawn by M. Dewalque in 1S78 

 from the results of the boring at Messrs. Meux's. 



The supposition that the Silurian strata met with at Ostende 

 would in their course westwards run north of London have 

 been proved by the occurrence of beds of Wenlock age at Ware, 

 near Hertford, twenty miles north of London. This discovery 

 has come most opportunely to supply the information which only 

 a year since was needed, as to the dip of the upper Devonian 

 strata at Messrs. Meux's brewery. The succession of the palaeo- 

 zoic strata in this the English side of the channel, even into the 

 far west, is just what it is in Belgium and the north of France, 

 from Brussels and Ostende from north to south. There the suc- 

 cessive members of the series mostly rise to the surface and are 

 exposed in all the valley of denudation extending north from the 

 line of the coal measures, as long since laid down by Dumont. 



With this guidance, and in spite of the little as yet known with 

 respect to our own underground structure on the south-east, it can 

 be safely put in relation with what obtains on the European con- 

 tinent for an extent of 400 miles ; the order in which the suc- 

 cessive members of the palaeozoic series rise to the surface from 

 beneath one another there, may be taken as our guide on to the 

 order and relation of the upper Devonian at the end of Totten- 

 ham Court Road near Oxford Street, and the section at Ware. 



The question of the strike and direction of the dip of the beds 

 at Messrs. Meux's is now determined as forming part of the 

 northern band of the trough containing first, the mountain lime- 

 stone series, and, next above, the true coal measures. 



For practical guidance one point alone remains to be considered : 

 from the place of the Upper Devonian strata in the heart of 

 London, w hat must be allowed for the breadth of the outcrop of 

 mountain limestone series next in sequence ? In parts of 

 Belgium the mountain limestone has been estimated at 600 feet 

 thick J it is less than that in an east and west direction. The 

 nearest place to London at which this is exposed is in the north 

 of the Bouloimais denudation ; where, with its associated beds, 

 it may be put at 400 feet. The breadth of such a mass at its 

 outcrop, and with an angle of 30° to 35°, such as the Devonian 

 bed at Meux's had, would be nearly doubled, or about 800 feet"; 

 in other words the lower members of the coal measure formation 

 may be fairly expected to occur at about that distance south from 

 a comer of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. The 

 upper, or productive coal-measures, still further to the south. 



What has been ascertained beyond all doubt as to the line of 

 section underiying a part of our English area from London to 

 Ware, may safely be taken as holding good for a great extent of 

 country on the east as in the west. The ages of more modern 

 overlying formations do not affect this question, as is shown by 

 the borings now in England, but more abundantly in the Euro- 

 pean continent. In our attempts to trace accurately hidden 

 physical arrangements of the earth's crust, the restrrctions to be 

 observed are — the positive data of the ascertained thickness of 

 the several formations and their several positions, and which 

 enable us to replace, without much chance of error, the line of 

 each band and of its angle of dip. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



University College, Bristol, will shortly commence its 

 fourth Session. The calendar, which is before us, states that 

 there were 448 students in the college in the second session ; and 

 in the third, 576, of whom 355 were men and 221 women ; 172 

 came in the day-time and 404 in the evening. Good progress is 

 being made by the Engineering Department, which is designed to 

 afford a thorough scientific education for students intending to 

 become mechanical or civil engineers, surveyors, or architects. 

 The course for engineering is such that students can pursue it 

 during the six winter months of each year, and the council of the 



